1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to anti-tumor substances or compositions (tumor cell degeneration substances). More particularly, the present invention relates to anti-tumor substances produced or synthesized from tumor cell-derived materials (materials of tumor cell origin) by Staphylococcus. Moreover, the present invention relates to the use of anti-tumor substances in treating tumors or inhibiting tumor cell growth and methods of producing such substances.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of anti-tumor substances are already known. Typically, such known anti-tumor substances are chemically synthesized or simply extracted from non-tumor organisms. Also, it is known that some of the known anti-tumor substances can be bacterially produced from tumor cell-derived materials.
The use of bacteria in the production of the anti-tumor substances was first presented by the present inventor. A method for bacterially producing a special anti-tumor substance is taught, for example, by Japanese Patent Number 3088680 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Number 10-276790) that was issued to the present inventor. In this known art, Ehrlich tumor cell derived materials are decomposed by Serratia so that the special anti-tumor substance is produced. The anti-tumor substance thus produced has anti-tumor activity in tumor cells.
There is currently significant interest in new types of anti-tumor substances and methods of bacterially producing such anti-tumor substances. In other words, there is a need for relatively effective anti-tumor substances for inhibiting tumor cell growth. At the same time, there is a need for methods that can easily and efficiently produce such anti-tumor substances.